Saturday 19th May
With it being the weekend and with all the strong stream warnings now lifted from the river things have certainly become busier. We have travelled 10 miles and 4 locks today. We set off about 9 am and dodging the rowers and canoeists arrived at the first lock, Marlow Lock, to find no lock keeper in evidence and the self service sign showing. We were surprised as it was a Saturday and we were not particularly early. So we operated it ourselves, which took quite some time as we had to read the instructions and work out what we were supposed to do. When we had finished there was a narrow boat waiting to go down and a couple of cruisers waiting to come up. The next lock, Temple Lock, was also on self service. By the time we got to Hurley lock quite a queue was building up in each direction but there was a lock keeper organising things.
We visited the sanitary station at Hurley Lock and got water which took about 30 minutes then set off again and carried on, through Hambleden Lock to Remenham, which is just downstream from Henley on Thames, where we moored in a nice open spot belonging to Remenham Farm about 2-30 pm. Along the way we spotted several Red Kite which I had never seen so close up, lovely. We also saw two Nimrod aircraft fly over while we were at Hurley, part of the fly past for the Queen maybe?
Ken and I walked in to Henley, about 2 miles from here, past the course of the Henley Regatta which is marked with piles and booms from May onwards. The marquees and spectator stands are currently being erected too. We went over Henley Bridge and headed in to town. The riverside terrace of The Angel On The Bridge was absolutely packed and The Red Lion Hotel opposite looked a bit pretentious so we went up the high street and as luck would have it I spotted The Catherine Wheel, a Wetherspoon’s Hotel.
We decided, as we are suffering from a bit of ‘Old Mother Hubbard’ syndrome indoors, to have a meal while we were there. I had the steak pie and Ken had the steak and kidney pudding (because he needs building up a bit) and both were very good.
The mooring fee is £8 here and we have decided that as tomorrow is Sunday it will probably be even busier than today so we are going to stop here until Monday, when we will go shopping in Reading and then start our trip up the K and A.
